


lion's teeth

by loonylu



Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Broken Bones, Canonical Child Abuse, Child Abuse, Child Protective Services, Gen, Mick's Dad - Freeform, Oldtown (pre) Teens, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, briefly references Peter Nureyev and Mags
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-14
Updated: 2019-07-14
Packaged: 2020-06-27 22:04:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19798702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loonylu/pseuds/loonylu
Summary: When eleven-year-old Juno shows up at his apartment with a broken nose, Mick's dad resolves to do something about it.(a ficlet about good intentions.)





	lion's teeth

**Author's Note:**

> title from the mountain goats song of the same name
> 
> trigger warnings for canon-typical injury and parental abuse, as well as well-meaning but ultimately useless adults.

Kevan Mercury has called child protective services on the Steels at least twice a year, like clockwork, since the twins started hanging around with his son in the second grade. He feels like he should have the hotline memorized by now, but he never does, so he has to look it up again. Every time he calls, someone picks up the comms and listens very politely to exactly what he says about Sarah Steel and Juno’s bruises, and they promise to pass along the information and they never, ever do. Well, they could, Kevan doesn’t know, but Juno and Ben still live with their snake of a mother.

He wishes he could go on record – file a police report – something. But Kevan’s younger half-brother Theo lives with them now, and Theo does all sorts of shady shit. Pills, booze, whatever, but it’s nice that Kevan doesn’t have to worry about the rent so much anymore. So it’s hard to just call the cops when the Steel boys show up at his apartment hungry and sporting suspicious bruises. Can’t call the cops on your own family.

Well, this time is going to be different. Kevan isn’t a perfect dad, not by any means, but he’s not going to sit idly by while an eleven-year-old bleeds all over his kitchen table. Even if the eleven-year-old in question is a smartass.

“Wow, Juno, do you think it’s broken?” his son asks loudly. Kevan rolls his eyes. His son isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer.

“Of course it’s broken,” Juno says indignantly. “My nose doesn’t look like this normally, does it?”

“I guess not, but I could have just not noticed?” Kevan’s son offers.

“Shut up, Mick,” Juno groans.

“Ben,” Kevan hears his son say, “are you okay? Did she – “

“Nope. I’m fine,” Benzaiten Steel says flatly.

“You really think I’d let Ma hurt Benten?” Juno asks, as low and dangerous as an eleven-year-old can manage.

Kevan chooses this moment to walk into the kitchen. He notices Juno sit up, shoulders tense, eyes tracking Kevan’s movements. Goddamnit, he wishes Juno would stop seeing him as a threat. He understands, but his chest always feels tight for a moment and he feels like his father, feels like he could slip into the bad parenting he’d been exposed to in his own childhood.

(When Kevan’s ex-partner had gotten pregnant, Kevan had taken a parenting class. Just to be safe.)

“Juno,” Kevan begins.

“Yessir,” Juno says immediately.

Kevan rolls his eyes. “Look, kid, can you just call me Kevan?”

Juno nods wordlessly and reaches for another tissue to soak up the blood pooling on his upper lip.

“I wanted to let you boys know that I’m about to call your ma,” Kevan says as gently as possible.

“Why?” Juno’s suspicious, and Kevan mentally kicks himself. “Are you gonna send us home?”

“Juno can’t go home yet – Ma said he couldn’t come back – “ Benzaiten babbles, sliding down from his perch on the kitchen counter and taking a step towards the older man.

Kevan doesn’t like raising his voice, but he cuts through. “I’m not sending anybody home – you boys know you can stay as long as you want.” He runs a hand over his face. “I just want to talk to your ma, okay?”

Juno is still suspicious. “”Bout what?” he says lowly.

“Your nose, kiddo,” Kevan raises an eyebrow. “’Less there’s something else bleedin’ on my kitchen table.”

“I – uh,” Juno starts, stuttering.

“Juno fell down,” Benzaiten says earnestly. “He’s really clumsy.” Benzaiten is making a frankly alarming amount of eye contact. Both of the Steel twins are shitty liars, but Benzaiten has clearly overcompensated for a natural lack of skill.

“Yeah,” Juno says after a moment, looking away.

Kevan glances at his son, sees his fists clench and his eyes tear up. Mick shouldn’t have to deal with this. Not so young.

Kevan sits down heavily. Maybe this is why his reports to the hotline never go anywhere. “Juno, Ben, that’s not the truth,” he says gently. “I’m happy to have you two spending time over here, as much as you need. I owe the both of you for keeping my son more or less safe and less delinquent than he would otherwise be. But this can’t keep happening. I can’t be expected to ignore when a hurt kid shows up at my door.”

“I’m sorry, sir,” Juno says stiffly, standing up and backing towards the door, keeping his eyes on Kevan’s hands. “I’ll go somewhere else to clean myself up and make sure everything here is spotless.”

He smiles at that. “Ain’t nothing here spotless,” Kevan says. “Sit back down, Juno.”

Juno sits.

“I know your ma’s been hurting you, Juno,” he begins, feeling the weight of the world on his shoulders. “And I think it’s high time somebody did something.”

A moment of silence; then, uproar.

“No!” Benzaiten shrieks. “Mr. Kevan you can’t do that, you can’t, Ma won’t make it If they take us away from her – Ma said they’ll separate me from Juno - “

“I told you, Dad, I’ve been telling you for years, Ms. Steel is dangerous! I told you!”

“I’ll deny it,” Juno says loudly. “Everything you say I’ll say it isn’t true. You are never, ever going to separate me and Ben no matter what you think you know - ”

“Okay, okay,” Kevan says, louder than the preteens. “I’m not reporting it to the cops or child services or anything,” he says, silently thinking that he’d love to have them do something. “I just want to call your ma and tell her someone knows about what she’s doing.”

“That’ll just make things worse,” Ben says miserably. "We're handling it, I promise, Mr. Kevan. Juno's pretty fast now, he can usually run away or something."

Juno nods earnestly. "This was just a mistake, I forgot to lock the door when I went to bed and she just - " Juno's mouth clamps shut to stop the flow of words. 

Kevan’s heart sinks. Is there anything he can do that won’t pull the cops’ attention to his brother’s drug stash? Or piss off Sarah Steel so much she does permanent damage?

“Okay,” Kevan says, “I won’t call right now. But if she hurts you again, Juno, I’m going to have to.” Under his breath, he says "I have to do something." Desperately, he adds at a normal volume, “You boys should stay the night. I have some cloned beef stew on the stove.”

Juno nods, tension bleeding from his shoulders even as his eyes remain suspicious.

***** 

_Did you have anyone in your life growing up who cared about you, love? Who watched out for you?_

_Yeah, my friend Mick’s dad usually kept an eye on me. Took me to the doctor, fed me, even tried to threaten my mom into backing off a couple of times. Didn’t really work, but it felt good._

_He sounds a bit like, well, someone who looked out for me when I was young._

_Kind of like Mags, right? Yeah, I think so. All good intentions._

_Not effective, in the end._

_Yeah._

**Author's Note:**

> after not feeling like i could write fic anymore i somehow wrote two in one night? cool cool cool
> 
> as always come say hi at healingsteel.tumblr.com


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